I have. It's pretty much as boring as you'd expect, with no "local mafia" and certainly not so many strip clubs in one area. I'm not even sure they have strip clubs at all, seeings how you still can't buy booze on sunday over there.
shareI'm from there and there is---or at least was---local organized crime. And if planned my route, I could drive around Wichita for 75 minutes and pass by six strip clubs, no problem.
shareThe mob refrenced in the movie is actually located in Kansas City, which has a strong history of mob activity. And urban areas of Kansas, such as Wichita or Kansas City, are a lot different from rural areas....just like urban and rural areas of every other state.
sharedude, I live there, I know what it's like. Kansas City is an urban MISSOURI area, by the way. there is a kansas city, kansas but the city (in missouri) existed long before the state.
shareI rented this movie hoping it was really filmed in Wichita, since I lived there a few years. It bothers me that Wichita seems to be chosen fairly often as THE unsophisticated, "nowhere" place in America. It was actually a very nice place to live for a few years. And I think the differences between the "sophisticated" coasts and places like Wichita are exaggerated.
"Extremism in the pursuit of moderation is no vice."
This movie was actually filmed in the CHicagoland area and the last scene with the RV out of gas was filmed about 10 minutes from my house.
shareOh, there's a mafia in Wichita.
shareI've lived in Kansas all my life. There are strip clubs, gangs, mafia, crime, etc. Why does everyone stereotype Kansas? I don't get it.
shareConsidering that Kansas has in recent times been the state where acts of domestic terrorism were hatched; where a church has celebrated the death of American soldiers in the Middle East; where a Taliban-style assassination of a man at his place of worship took place, well, I think Kansas is doing everything it can to become stereotyped.
shareAnd serial killers. Don't forget BTK! That's probably the only movie set in Wichita that was actually filmed in Wichita. Maybe because it was a true story, not fiction. I'm not sure if "In Cold Blood", "Infamous" or "Capote" were filmed in Kansas, but I doubt it.
shareI grew up and lived for 38 years in Kansas City, Missouri. I've been to Wichita several times, along with many other cities in Kansas. As someone else pointed out, Kansas City has a long history of organized crime, and they have often extended their activities to nearby cities like Wichita.
As for strip clubs, there are definitely clubs in and around Wichita. Renata even mentioned that a new law was being passed that would prevent nudity within Wichita city limits, but she refused to move her club to outside the city because the mob already controlled all the clubs there. I once went to a club near Lawrence called "The Flamingo", but it's nickname was "The Dirty Bird" because it was very raunchy and located in the middle of nowhere. It was a favorite destination of frat boys from KU (Kansas University) in Lawrence.
"Push the button, Max!"
What makes you think that the filmmaker's were attempting to make a documentary on what Kansas is actually like?
share